Summertime!

Summertime has not been good for my relationship with exercise! I can't blame my children for this lack of exercise because my gym has a daycare. I can't blame the Georgia heat either, because I belong to a gym. So why have I not exercised? Sadly, it is because I am lazy!

It is also because I would rather be chilling with my children at the pool or traveling somewhere cool. I have had the most amazing summer of my life! Both of my children are at a very fun age, albeit an exhausting age, fun no less. No matter what we do it is an adventure in one way or another.

Our first adventure of the summer was to Savannah with my friend Brandy and her daughter Kiley. The first night on River Street my son Drew decided to run out of the restaurant and take off down the sidewalk. I ran after him and noticed a lot of people snickering at me. I was thinking, "How rude, who would laugh about a little two year old running down the sidewalk?" Then Caroline ran up behind me and yelled, "Mommy, you have toilet paper on your shoes!" I looked down and I had 3 foot long streamers of toilet paper stuck to both of my shoes! OMG! This situation would ONLY happen to me! The rest of the "vacation" was spent at the beach, visiting my family in Effingham County and spending an evening with some girlfriends from home.

My next trip was the annual high school girlfriends trip to Lake Sinclair. My friends from high school and I get together every year for drunken hilarity. Needless to say, this year was so funny that the pictures have been banned from posting! I will say that I have some very beautiful friends both on the inside and the outside. We are coming up on our 10 year reunion from high school and among the six of us we have 6 husbands, 6 children and a boob job (which I am jealous is not mine) and somehow we look better than we did when we graduated!

St. Simon's Island was the stage of our next adventure! Andy's firm had thier Regional trip to the King and Prince Resort and it was a family trip so the kids got to come along. Bless my heart, both of my children almost drown in the ocean then proceeded to cover themselves in sand/mud from the beach. Of course, this was while their daddy was in meetings, so when he got out and was ready to hang, I was ready for a mommy time-out! He took them to the beach and pool and claimed they were "perfect" for him! How does that happen? He always says they are much worse when I am around! What's up with that?!?!

We drove 11 hours to small town Illinois to visit my family for July 4th. I love the way the mid-westerners do Independence Day: a big parade, carnival and fireworks. Simple but charming! I got to meet my new niece Allyson Marie. She is beautiful and sweet, just perfect! I am in love with her! Everything was going great in Illinois and we were planning on taking the kids to the St. Louis Arch and the Zoo when I was struck by a killer stomach bug! Why do these things always happen to me? I felt like I could possibly die that day, but I wanted to make it happen for the kids, so I sucked it up and packed 5 children into my car and me and my sister had our own reality show "Amy and Amanda Plus 5". We took them to McDonald's where they got kicked off the playground for not wearing socks and my nephew, Bradyn, stole everybodies' chicken nuggets! Everytime I stood up straight I had stabbing cramps in my stomach and the zoo trip was cancelled. The kids didn't even notice! I was so sick I couldn't even function for two days.

The most exciting thing about the trip was Andy rescued a sweet little kitten from a farm and brought it home to me. I fell in love immediately with that little orange furball! We started brainstorming names: Liberty but call him "Bert" for short; Honkey Cat, a tribute to Elton John; Puddy Two Shoes. We settled on Lucy Belle because we thought we had a girl, but after a trip to the vet we figured out that she was a he so we renamed him Oliver Smokin' Oakin! (Like on Hannah Montana... I have a 5 year old!) Oliver had to be fed kitty formula with a bottle and lay on a heating pad because he was a sick kitty. He is our new baby love!

I am realizing after writing this blog that I am not lazy...I am totally exhausted! I think it is going to take me going back to work in order to get some rest! Here's hoping to get back on track in August!